By Dr. Laila Risgallah Wahba | Project Leader
As the end of 2020 approaches, and despite COVID, Not Guilty has seen glimpses of light.
Not Guilty has seen a spike in sexual abuse of women. Most women have been cooped up with their husbands, many of whom have lost their jobs. This increased domestic violence and abuse.
Not Guilty thought of out of the box ways to reach those women, so we started filming mini clips, 3 minutes each, and send them on Facebook weekly boosting the posts.
Many women found us and reached out to us. Over 20 women are now on weekly zoom counseling sessions with Not Guilty counselors.
Nada is an Egyptian physiotherapist. She is single, living with her brother. She is 40 years old and has lost all hope to find the right husband. "Every time I think I found the right person, his parents do not agree because I am fat." Said Nada, with tears in her eyes. Nada needs to work two jobs to make ends meet.
When we started counseling, Nada was very depressed because she works on daily wages. Since COVID began, she had no income. Her brother also lost his job and started beating her to supply cash for him to buy cigarettes.
Nada has no place to go.
During counseling, we spoke about healthy boundaries. Nada had never heard about family boundaries before.
She realized that she was indeed empowering her brother to continue with his abuse of her.
As she learned healthy coping mechanisms and healthy boundaries, she could stand up to her situation better.
Now, she went back to one of the physiotherapy clinics where she works, but still cannot make ends meet.
Not Guilty was there for Nada at a time when she wanted to commit suicide.
We are still doing the weekly mini videos, with encouragement messages and messages on dealing with their school-aged kids as they learn at home.
Other messages are on how the woman can have moments of rest, even with a coffee cup on the balcony.
The importance of self-care cannot be overly stressed during this COVID season.
We hope to reach as many women as we can in the few days left.
And COVID is still here, but Not Guilty will reach as many as your generosity will permit.
Happy New Year
www.notguiltyinc.org
By Dr. Laila Risgallah Wahba | Project Leader
By Dr. Laila Risgallah Wahba | Project Leader
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser